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Pakistan Party Announces Protests, to Appeal Leader's Detention

Posted on: Monday, 20 February 2006, 12:00 CST

Text of report by Pakistani newspaper The News website on 20 February

Lahore: Jamaat-i-Islami [JI] ameer [chief] Qazi Hussain Ahmad, who was put under house arrest on Sunday [19 February], said a countrywide protest day will be observed on Friday (24 February) to condemn the police torture during the Shan-e-Risalat (SAW) [peace be upon him] rally in Islamabad. He also said that on 3 March a complete strike would be observed.

His house at Mansoora [JI headquarters in Lahore] has been declared a sub-jail and police guards were deputed there. SSP [Senior Superintendent of Police] Investigations Lahore Shafqat Chaudhry handed over detention orders to the JI leader at the party headquarters Mansoora. Qazi received the orders and said: "These are unconstitutional and illegal as such detention erodes freedom of movement and speech guaranteed under the constitution."

Heavy contingents of police and paramilitary forces had cordoned off Mansoora. Policemen did not allow even pedestrians to move on the road leading to Mansoora, besides Mansoora Hospital employees were not allowed to join their duty by police officials. Mediamen covering the events were not allowed to enter Mansoora but a group of TV journalists somehow managed to get into the JI headquarters and police officials were stunned to see them covering Qazi's speech at the main gate.

Addressing the JI workers, who had gathered to escort him to the airport, Qazi termed the federal government detention orders illegal and unconstitutional. He said the peaceful protest was everybody's right but the government was creating chaos and unrest by detaining leaders and arresting thousands of people. "The movement will not die down with my arrest or detention," Qazi said amid slogans of "Allah-o-Akbar [Allah is great], Ghulami Rasool (SAW) Mein Mout Bhi Kabool Hay [we would accept death in keeping allegiance to the prophet]". He said the Muslim ummah [community] was deeply grieved over the sacrilege committed by the European press. "This is a movement of Nizam-e-Mustafa (SAW) [Islamic system] and it will continue even if I am eliminated by the government," he said.

Qazi said General Pervez Musharraf was acting as a representative of the Western civilization and was fighting a pitched battle against the Islamic norms and values in the ongoing war of civilizations. Qazi vowed to continue Tehreek Tahuffaz-e-Namoos Risalat (SAW) [movement for protection of the sanctity of prophethood] till the ouster of Gen Pervez Musharraf as he was the main hurdle in setting up Nizam-e-Mustafa (SAW) in Pakistan.

He held the government agencies responsibility for the violence in Lahore rally on 14 February saying this was a well-orchestrated plan of the government to malign the religious quarters. "We have organized million marches in open markets which went well without any damage to public or private properties," he said, but after the arrest and detention of leaders' situation could get volatile.

To a question, Qazi said the Danish government closed its embassy in Islamabad on their own as they were not asked to leave according to public demand. He said the recall of Pakistani ambassador in Copenhagen did not show that Islamabad severed its diplomatic ties with the European country but the envoy was called back for consultation only. He said scared rulers could not provide guidance to people.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Qazi said firing and teargas shelling on the unarmed protesters and ruthless police action was a sheer violation of the constitutionally guaranteed democratic rights of people. Qazi condemned the road barricades between the Punjab and the NWFP [North-West Frontier Province] saying: "The gigantic containers and heap of sand on the road leading to Rawalpindi were giving a look as if this road does not connect two provinces of a country."

Meanwhile, the MMA has decided to challenge the detention of JI's Ameer Qazi Hussain in the court of law. JI Naib Ameer [deputy chief] Muhammad Aslam Saleemi has been directed to consult legal experts for filing a case in this regard. Dr Farooq Hassan and other lawyers were being consulted for filing the case to seek nullification of the detention orders of Qazi. Over 3,463 MMA workers were arrested from across the country as a pre-emptive measure to stop them from taking part in the Islamabad rallies. JI Secretary-General Syed Munawar Hassan, who reached in the federal capital to address the rally, was arrested from Rawalpindi press club when he came out after addressing a hurriedly call press conference.

Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

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